ADMINISTRATION

The U.S. Department of Education (ED) approved the first Workforce Pell Grant, which was for an Emergency Medical Technician program at Iowa Central Community College.

ED released a letter from U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon asking universities to publicly describe their commitments to a series of institutional changes by the end of the year.

ED sent a rule that would rewrite accreditation regulations to the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced a proposed rule to remove certain Federal requirements for Head Start, an early education program for low-income families. HHS will accept comments from the public until October 6, 2026.

CONGRESS

Senate appropriators released text of a continuing resolution to fund Federal agencies through December 11, with some exceptions. The bill includes language to block an OMB rewrite of regulations commonly referred to as the “Uniform Guidance,” a government-wide framework for Federal grants and other Federal financial assistance.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report titled, “College Athletics: Most Programs Spend More Than They Generate in Revenue.”

The GAO released a report titled, “Federal Student Loans: Education Could Better Coordinate with Servicers When Making Program Changes.”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) filed cloture on a revised version of the Protect College Sports Act, a bill to regulate college sports, moving the legislation forward toward a vote by the full Senate.

The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation marked up S.737, the SCREEN Act; S.1748, the Kids Online Safety Act; S.4199, the Youth AI Privacy Act; S.4407, the CHATBOT Act; and S.5171, the Children’s Artificial Intelligence Toy Safety Act of 2026. S.1748, S.4199, S.4407 and S.5171 passed by a voice vote. The Committee conducted a roll call vote of 15 to 13 on the passage of S.737, but an objection was made due to the lack of a quorum, preventing the Committee from favorably reporting the bill.

COURTS

A nursing coalition filed an amended complaint challenging ED’s criteria for determining which graduate programs qualify for higher Federal graduate student loan limits.